


The Solo Effect

by thebitchofdathomir



Series: Off-Beat 90's movie inspired Reylo moodiness [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Zero Effect (1998)
Genre: And Rey is adorable and pure sunshine, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Ben and Rey have tragic backstories no matter what universe they are in, Ben is a private investigator with ISSUES, F/M, Finn has had it with Ben's bullshit, Finn is Ben's associate, Inspired by Zero Effect (1998), Plutt is a rich business man, Rey Needs A Hug, Slow Burn, Virgin Ben Solo, Virgin Rey (Star Wars), for the aesthetic, i don't make the rules, let's pretend it's 1998, who has a mysterious past, with a dirty past
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:54:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25599919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebitchofdathomir/pseuds/thebitchofdathomir
Summary: The mysterious and brilliant Ben Solo...He is one of the top private investigators in the world. But he's also one of the most eccentric. He is reclusive and irritable and hardly ever leaves the house. A majority of his cases are solved from his desk while his legal representative and long time associate Finn Storm meets face-to-face with all his clients, explaining the odd terms and conditions.However, when Unkar Plutt, a prominent businessman in Coruscant falls victim to a mysterious and elusive blackmailer, Ben finds that for this case, he has to be present for the investigation. In his line of work, Ben has learned to expect the unexpected but he is thrown for a loop as he discovers who the main suspect is.For the first time in his professional career, Ben Solo figures out more of who he is as he finds himself confronted with feelings and emotions he assumed he wasn't capable of. It quickly turns into an experience that alters his life forever.[The story of the world's mostprivateprivate detective and how he fell in love with the blackmailer he was supposed to catch.]
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Off-Beat 90's movie inspired Reylo moodiness [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854436
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. The Case of the Missing Keys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how often I'll update this or if it will be interesting to anyone but I wrote it into existence so I might as well post it. I'll probably add to the tags in the future. 
> 
> Thanks for coming:)

“It’s his uncompromising standard. He never meets his clients. He doesn't speak with them or communicate directly. It's his policy,” Finn explains, looking to the man on the other side of the desk, checking again at the desk plate to see if that was real. 

_Unkar Plutt._ _What kind of a name is that?_

“I'm his sole representative, he's my only employer and I have full authorization to speak on his behalf on all his matters of business. I have with me a signed letter to that effect,” Finn nods to his briefcase, thinking of the bullshit letter that he keeps around but no one ever asks to see. 

“He doesn't negotiate his fee. He works at a flat rate. Under some unusual circumstances, he'll work pro bono. Never in between.”

“I don’t suppose I would qualify for that then?” Plutt asks.

“I haven’t heard your proposal yet,” Finn says plainly. Judging by the subtle shakiness this guy had, he would guess that whatever shit this guy was in, he was in deep.

“Well, I don’t think I’m exactly a charity case.”

“Most of our clients aren’t,” Finn shrugs but remains professional. He had gotten really good at schooling his features, especially for this initial introduction where he has to explain the initial situation to people. That throughout the assignment, they would only be contacting Finn. 

“Mr. Storm, you do realize this is all very strange,” Plutt says, looking to him as baffled as most of them do once Finn explains the ground rules. “I mean, no one in your field asks the kind of money your employer does and nobody communicates through a...a messenger, I guess you are,” Plutt says, gesturing to Finn across the desk. “It’s just...it’s all so unusual.”

Finn smiles, thinking he sounded just like the last guy. And the guy before that. All of them are skeptical but need a little reassuring that the help they are getting is coming from the best. So Finn always tells the same story. 

“Let me tell you about a previous case of his. This is many years ago when I first came into his employ. He was contracted to find a man. I’m afraid I can’t give much in the way of detail but believe me when I say that had this man not been located, our country’s diplomacy with a certain economic superpower might have a distinctly different face today,” Finn says but pauses for effect, amused when Plutt seems to inch forward slightly.

“Federal, state, and local authorities all over the world were searching night and day for a face whose significance they couldn’t fathom. He had vanished without a trace.”

He pauses for further effect. This is the kind of shit he gets paid for so he might as well milk it. 

“On the eighth morning of the search, a non-political third party contacted me with an unrelated private agenda. My employer had never heard of this missing man and knew nothing about him. But after just one hour of desk work...just an hour after accepting the case...he picked up the telephone and placed a call. Guess who answered the phone?”

Plutt looks to him incredulously. “The missing man?”

Finn nods. “All without ever leaving the house.”

* * *

**_12 hours earlier at the Rogue One Pub_ **

_“I’m telling you, he never even leaves the house. He’s like, what do you call...a recluse,” Finn says, realizing he must be drunker than he realized because he can’t even think of simple words. But he doesn't care. He was already venting and Poe was one of the few people that listened. “I’ve never seen anything like it. No social life...in fact, no social skills,” Finn shakes his head._

_“It’s the strangest fucking thing because when he’s working, he’s the smoothest operator you’ve ever seen. He’s brave, slick...cunning. The guy can do anything, ” Finn says, taking a swig of his beer. “But the second he’s off work,” Finn flicks his hand in the air, “it’s all gone. He’s afraid to go out. To go to the dry cleaners. Literally. He’s too uncomfortable in his own skin to go out to a restaurant and eat some food...and he’s rude too. He can be such an asshole!”_

_Poe leans closer, confused. “Why is he afraid of the dry cleaners?”_

_Finn rolls his eyes. “I don’t know. He’s afraid of everything. I've never seen anything like it.”_

* * *

“You could meet him five times and not realize it’s the same person,” he tells Plutt. “He can tell you where you were born, how old your mother was at the time, and what you had for breakfast, all within the first thirty seconds of meeting you. He can elicit a confession from a criminal whiteout them realizing they’re being questioned.”

“How does he do it?” Plutt asks, looking skeptical of all this information and how it was possible a human was capable of it all. But Finn wasn’t too sure they were even discussing a human. 

“He has a deeply nuanced and functional understanding of human behavior to rival the great psychoanalytical minds of our time. He understands the criminal mind as well as the innocent mind, the stable mind as well as the psychotic, sociopathic mind, and the male as well as the female.”

* * *

_“He’s tactless, inept...and probably impotent too. I mean, I don’t think he’s ever even kissed somebody before. And he’s about to be thirty years old or something," Finn shakes his head._

_“What does he do when he’s not working?” Poe asks. “Does he just sit around the house?”_

_Finn starts to laugh, shaking his head. “Oh, he keeps busy, or at least he thinks he does.”_

* * *

“When private investigation won its most worthy champion, academia and the arts suffered a great loss. In addition to his many scholarly gifts, he’s a terrifically talented and humble artist,” Finn gives his best bullshit smile to Plutt who could probably care less about the man’s hobbies. But Finn couldn’t resist. 

* * *

_“He makes these...paintings,” Finn shakes his head, imagining one that he was working on a few weeks ago. “They’re terrible. I mean, I’m no art critic but when some people try to be smart and abstract to make millions I just roll my eyes but I don’t think he has any idea what he’s doing or why. It’s just a bunch of amateurish globs and it’s a mess. Like he’s fingerpainting in kindergarten. I think he just likes to throw paint and make a huge fucking mess.”_

_Poe shakes his head, laughing. “Dude, you were the top of our class in law school. You could work anywhere. I mean, why do you do this to yourself? This guy sounds like a pain in the ass.”_

_Finn sighs. “I left the First Order firm not long before he did. I didn’t know what I was going to do but he got out to do his own thing and he contacted me,” Finn tells him, recalling the memory of the day he came home to hear the strange voice in his messages. “He left a message on my machine. He said he watched me tender my resignation to Snoke and he had seen me argue a few cases in court. Told me I was the only person for the job. I don’t know,” Finn shrugs, realizing he was getting off-topic. “The guy is nuts, okay? That’s all I’m trying to say.”_

_“What did you say his name was again?” Poe leans forward._

* * *

“The mysterious and brilliant Ben Solo,” Plutt says, looking out the window to the city behind him. He turns back to look at Finn. “Well, he certainly takes himself seriously, doesn’t he?”

Finn doesn’t answer, knowing he would only agree with the guy and he needed to only say positive remarks. 

“Alright, Mr. Storm. I’ll be honest. I’ve already tried to administer help from another source. _Another private detective._ But they were baffled with this case and couldn’t find anything to go on."

Finn perks up at that, wondering if it was someone from the First Order. He’d have to ask around before he spoke to Ben. If it’s Hux, Ben will go crazy.

“Anyways, that’s when I started to consider reaching out to Mr. Solo as I heard he was the best.”

“The best in the world,” Finn assures him.

Plutt sighs. “Then I’m sold.”

 _Excellent,_ Finn thinks to himself. 

“What happens now?”

“You will tell me how my employer can be of service to you. Then I go and speak to him and brief him on your situation.”

“Where does he live?”

Finn gives a soft chuckle. “Not to be coy, Mr. Plutt but I can’t tell you that.”

Plutt sits back in his chair with a huff. “Of course not.” He taps his fingers nervously on his desk. “You know, Mr. Storm, I’m not used to being in this position. Being needy.”

“I understand,” Finn says with a fake smile. 

“It is of the utmost importance that what I’m about to tell you does not leave your confidence or that of your...” Plutt chews for the words, “...inaccessible employer.”

“That I can guarantee.”

Plutt leans over, looking quite serious. As if he was worried someone else might hear even though they were alone in his office. “I have lost my keys, Mr. Storm, and I need to find them.”

Finn refrains from furrowing his brow. He’s never heard a proposal start quite like that. But then Plutt says more. 

“I’m being blackmailed, Mr. Storm. And because of that, it’s cost me a great deal of money and many nights’ sleep. I need this matter resolved. I need questions answered. I need to know who stole the key to my safety deposit box.”

* * *

Finn pulls up to the building in his car. The valet comes around and Finn steps out, grabbing his briefcase. He moves into the building, retrieving the key card from his wallet. 

He gets into the elevator, inserting the card and entering the code in the pad before pressing the penthouse button. He huffs to himself as he puts the card back in his wallet and pulls out the keyring, mentally preparing himself for the usual task of just getting through the man’s front door. Because under no circumstance can Ben just let him in. Finn can’t just knock on the door or have a single key to get in. 

_No_. Entrance to Ben Solo’s penthouse required a series of number codes, six keys for one door, the memory to withhold all these numbers (if you write them down, he gets paranoid and has to change all of them), and the patience to just get through it all without cursing. 

Ben Solo had the security system of the most childish Bond villain that thought he was more important than he actually was so he put all this extra nonsense onto his million-dollar dwelling.

Finn got through the first door fine, and he was on the fourth lock of the front door, taking a deep breath as he could already hear the muffled music coming from inside. 

Finn was glad all the other occupants in this building weren’t subjected to it as he was totally secluded up here. Which was the whole idea. 

This building housed young and successful professionals and career people from all over the city. Most wore suits and ties and he wonders if any of them had any idea of the kind of tenant that lived above all of them. 

He finally opens the door and the music hits him much stronger but he ignores it, quickly stepping over to the security system and entering the first sequence before returning to the door, closing it, locking all six locks, and then stepping back to the system, entering an even longer number sequence. When it beeps and flashes a small green light, Finn slumps a bit, stepping away with a sigh. He always hated that part...almost as much as he hated locking back up which was inevitably coming when he left again. 

Finn walks down the hallway, groaning at the state of the man’s apartment. It was a bigger mess than usual. 

Ben had, what must have been, thousands of books. And he had plenty of shelf space to accommodate them, but he was constantly pulling them out, reading something, and then piling it on top of something else. Usually more books. Sometimes on top of the security monitors that littered the apartment.

Finn was tired of being his housekeeper so he didn’t bother with it anymore. It just made him want to go home and straighten up his own shelves to ease his anxieties about it. 

He steps into the kitchen, the music getting louder as well as a loud thumping sound, and Finn realizes he must be in his studio which meant he had to prepare himself for whatever ‘masterpiece’ he was working on and already trying to think of something nice to say about it.

He ducks into the fridge, grabbing one of the four ginger ale’s set aside for him. The rest of the fridge looked like it belonged to a fifteen-year-old as it was stocked with dozens of Dr.Pepper cans as well as some juice boxes and pudding cups. 

He moves down another hallway, finding more books and trinkets and canvases, leaning against walls. A laundry basket stuffed to the brim. He ignores it, following the music and the loud noises. Ben always listened to music when he was in his studio and it was usually of a more aggressive genre that Finn knew teenagers would listen to when they try to piss off their parents. But despite Ben's age, Finn thinks he may still be, in many ways, still a kid. 

He takes a final deep breath, preparing himself as he turns the knob and opens the door. Inside he finds just about what he expected.

Ben Solo is wearing paint-covered boxing gloves and repeatedly punching a large canvas that was against the wall. 

Finn just waits, knowing Ben knows he’s there. He has security monitors in this room too. He saw Finn come in. He’s just taking his time to acknowledge him. So until then, Finn stays in the doorway, avoiding the paint splash zone.

About forty seconds later, when the song that was blaring finally ended, Ben is done and takes a few deep breaths as he looks at the canvas in its entirety before he finally turns to Finn, yanking off the boxing gloves and throwing them in some buckets. 

The man was a mess. He stood there in his boxers, combat boots, and some diving goggles that he was using to protect his eyes from the paint splatter. The rest of him though was coated in paint as was most of this room.

At least he was confining the painting to just this room and not the whole penthouse. 

“That looks nice,” Finn says, looking to the canvas behind him that looks like something exploded. 

“You like it?” Ben asks, his nose plugged from the goggles. He steps over to the closet that has a bunch of darts stuck in the wood to pull out a Hawaiian shirt which he puts on over his paint-splattered chest. 

“Yeah. It’s very...expressive,” he tells him. 

Ben pushes the goggles to the top of his head and Finn thinks he officially looks insane. But Finn had to get used to Ben’s...eccentric way of life rather quickly when he became his associate. 

“Where the fuck have you been?” Ben asks calmly, finishing the buttons on his shirt. It seemed he was speaking more to the wall than to Finn.

“What do you mean?”

“Where. The. Fuck. Have. You. Been?” he asks more sternly this time. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I came straight from the airport,” Finn shrugs, knowing by now that Ben liked to bark about things and they were usually about nothing. 

Ben runs his hands through his hair, getting even more paint in his black tresses. He walks through the desolation of his apartment and Finn follows him. “I’ve been awake for three days.”

“Three days?”

“I think it’s my pills.”

Ben was on a bunch of different pills to attempt to stabilize his hyperactive, paranoid, depressive, eccentric mind but Finn suspected most of them were placebos. “Oh, well do you want me to call your doctor?”

“No! I never said it was a bad thing. I feel fine!”

“Okay,” Finn holds up his hands. “Never mind. Just thought I’d ask. Things look crazier than usual in here,” he says, trying not to pay too much attention to the man’s appearance. 

“I’m doing wonderful,” Ben says, grabbing a jar of peanut butter off the shelf and digging into it with a spoon.

Finn winces as he opens his soda. “Yeah, you’re the picture of health, Ben.”

Finn then watches as Ben rips into a massive bag of pretzels, crushing a handful of them and then proceeds to stir them into the peanut butter until he starts eating it again, this time the crunch of the pretzels making it much louder. 

“What’s going on with the guy in Coruscant?” he asks, oblivious or ignoring the fact that Finn was looking at him in almost disgust.

“Blackmail,” Finn says, leaning against what looked to be a clean spot on the counter. 

“Mmm…” Ben hums as he chews. “Name?”

“Plutt.”

“Ah,” Ben says, still focused on the peanut butter. “Unkar Plutt. Niima Industries.”

Finn isn’t even surprised that Ben already knows. “Yeah. That’s him.”

“He’s a very rich man. Old money though. It was his father’s business. He didn’t fill his role in that company until he was much older which means he either tried and failed to do something else in an effort to be original or he was just fucking around and let his parents clean up after his messes before they made him grow up,” he says, not once looking at Finn. Almost like he’s talking to himself. “Or, of course it could be something else, but it’s definitely something. They are very private, actually,” Ben explained, digging back into his lunch. 

“Not like you though?” Finn deadpans but Ben must ignore it.

He moves to the fridge. “So, Blackmail, huh?” He grabs a soda and comes to stand beside Finn against the counter. “What did he do? Did he kill somebody or fuck somebody?” he asks before taking a loud slurp from his soda. 

“He fucked somebody over, by the sounds of it,” Finn tells him. “I’m thinking it might be embezzlement related.”

Ben gives a humorless grunt. “Runs in the family, I guess. His old man, _Frederick Plutt,_ had a big tax evasion in Eighty-Two. He was legally exonerated but karmically convicted because he died right after the acquittal. Massive coronary,” he says before taking another bite from the pretzel infested peanut butter jar. “He just didn’t take care of himself. He ate like a pig.”

Finn can’t even hide his smirk as he watched Ben do both those things. 

“He was just a fat man and Unkar Plutt is the son of a fat man. Which is why he’s probably on the heavy side too, am I right.”

“He’s huge.” Plutt was bulbous. Like he was always about to pop.

_Speaking of about to pop..._

“By the way, you wouldn’t be the first investigator he’s hired to sniff around on this case.”

Ben rolls his eyes and his shoulders slumped as he prepares himself to hear what Finn had uncovered on his way back. “Who?”

“Hux,” Finn says, knowing how much Ben hates the guy. Ben growls. “But he didn’t turn a thing. Walked away which probably pissed Snoke off because he knows you’re better and you don’t work there anymore.”

“Hux,” Ben scoffs, still stuck on hating the redhead. “What a fucking hack!" Ben grits through his teeth. "Do you know the trouble with Hux? He has absolutely no fucking tact. He stinks up the whole neighborhood,” he says, bringing the soda can to his lips, but barks out another insult before he takes a sip. “And he’s press hungry. It’s just repulsive.”

“Well, he has the perfect persona for the First Order. They feed on good press.”

Ben groans and Finn can tell he’s not in the mood to think about their former employer. He takes a loud sip of his soda before rerouting his anger and running his hands through his hair. “Okay, Unkar Plutt. On a scale of one to ten, how desperate is he?”

Finn recalls the man's shakiness and constant scowl. “He's trying to hide it but he's bordering on manic.”

Ben snorts a little before leaning against the counter and taking in all this information. “Would I need to go there?”

“I think you’d want to check it out. There isn’t a lot to go on here.”

And Ben would want to finish this one quickly, just to possibly add insult to injury to Hux who couldn’t find a goddamn thing.

Ben walks away, grabbing his peanut butter jar and the big bag of pretzels. “I’d have to go there?” he whines.

“Ben, I don’t like it. I think you need to be there.”

He looks like he’s actually having an internal battle before he curses. “Fuck it. Sure, yeah. Tell him I’ll do it.”

“Wait! Don’t you even want to hear what it is?” Finn calls out as he loses sight of him. He hadn’t even told him about the keys or more of what Plutt had told him, although it wasn’t much.

Ben’s only response from down the hall is, “What day is it today? Is it Wednesday?”

Finn scoffs. “It’s Sunday!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter (and probably future ones too) have a lot of the dialogue from the movie that I straight-up reuse so this isn't that original but whatever. Times is tough and my brain wanted to write it anyway. I don't know.
> 
> By the way, for any art nerds out there, I was thinking what kind of artwork Ben Solo would make and I figured he would do something very physical. So, I thought of Ushio Shinohara who is a famous artist that actually uses boxing gloves to punch paint onto the canvas. 
> 
> I first heard about him when I watched the documentary "Cutie and the Boxer" which was really good (and sad) but I'd recommend watching it.


	2. Easy Enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter just to get us rolling.

Ben had finally fallen asleep after Finn came by. 

He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep but he must have crashed pretty hard because he woke up using the bag of pretzels as a pillow.

Maybe it was learning that he had to leave the house late that night and get on a plane that immediately exhausted him that he finally crashed.

He only slept for about five hours before he got up and took a shower. He scrubbed all the paint off of him before he started wandering around his apartment and packing his suitcase. 

He didn’t think this case would be too difficult. Especially since he was leaving the house, that meant he could probably be done with it in at least the first twenty-four hours. But he preferred to be over packed than under so he got several days of clothes.

Coruscant was another city, not too far from Chandrila where Ben lives. But it wouldn’t matter if he was just going down the street. He hated leaving the house and leaving the house to go anywhere was always going to be an inconvenience. 

He looks to the clock and realizing he still had time before he and Finn had to leave for the airport. So he sits at his desk, in front of one of his monitors. He had several computers and among them were some of his security monitors.

He sighs to himself, seeing his blurry and awkward reflection on the dark screen. He was nearing thirty and he still felt...actually he doesn't even know how he feels. Sometimes he feels too much and sometimes he doesn't feel at all. He looks at Finn who was younger than him and yet he seemed stable and adjusted but he also did just fine when he left his house. Ben wasn't like that. 

When he left the First Order, he really thought it would give him the freedom he always wanted. But he's not sure if it's 'freedom' he's achieved or something else. And although he’s glad not to be working for assholes like Snoke anymore, he still ends up working with assholes like Unkar Plutt. A man whose whole situation Ben wasn’t even aware of yet but he could take enough of an educated guess that he was indeed an asshole. 

But this was his job, and Ben knows that when it came to this line of work, he was the best. But that felt like more of a curse than a gift. And yet, no one seemed to really understand, not that he’s ever tried to explain it all very well but he just hasn’t known how to express it.

Looking to the clock once more, he huffs as he turns his computer on and decides to speak to the only person he knows how to talk to. 

_Himself_.

He starts typing on a blank document.

_“It is not without serious reservation that I sit down to begin the seemingly impossible tasks of documenting my own methods. It always seemed like someone else should be doing it but unfortunately, my legal representative and long time associate has shown no interest whatsoever. And so I am forced to take on the task myself with no intention of glorifying or aggrandizing or immortalizing my own memory but rather in the hope that such a memoir might someday be useful to others. I will begin my examination by, as I said, documenting my process, particularly on my next case. The details of which I don’t have yet but I imagine, like all the others, I will be finished in a timely manner.”_

When he sees Finn show up in the security monitor, he powers it off, gathering himself and screaming into a throw pillow one more time before he had to face the outside world. It would be like all the other times, he already knows and he just looks forward to when he can finally be back where he is now, comfortable and hidden away like he's meant to be. 

* * *

Ben drove down the freeway while Finn was in the passenger seat, going over the details of the case with him. 

“He wouldn’t tell me what was in the box. From what I can piece together, I think it’s some sort of financial record but didn’t want to tell me.”

“So, whatever he’s hiding, he keeps it in a safety deposit box. But then he keeps the key to the box cleverly hidden on his key ring along with his house, office, and car keys?”

“I’m just telling you what he told me,” Finn says. “So, anyway, about a year ago--it’ll be a year on the seventeenth--he loses his keys. He says they had a gold motorcycle keychain on the ring too.”

“Oh, he likes to humor himself by thinking he’s into motorcycles. He sounds wonderful,” Ben rolls his eyes before changing lanes. 

“Yeah, he’s a regular sweetheart. So, a few days pass after he can’t find them and he gets a little panicky.”

“Then, several _months_ later, he gets a letter at the office. It’s stamped ‘Personal and Confidential.’” Finn turns through the pages, overlooking the papers Plutt gave him. “The sender’s name is marked as ‘Past Due Collections.’”

“Ooo,” Ben smirks. “That’s a nice touch,” he says, actually impressed. 

“It’s laser printed. Very general. Not very long. But it starts out with this: ‘Mr. Plutt, I have evidence linking you to your crime. You may entertain notions of impunity. But in the end, everyone is culpable.’”

“Interesting.”

“Each time, they demand a succession of one-hundred thousand dollar payments. He’ll get these letters which layout a maze he has to go through that lead him to the drop site where he leaves the money. He’s done this seven times so far.”

“Seven-hundred thousand dollars. That’s chump change for a guy like Plutt,” Ben scoffs.

“Yeah, well, he seems to have grown tired of the inconvenience,” Finn tells him as he carries on. “He gave me copies of the letters which are in a file that I’m putting in your briefcase so you can look it over.”

“There’s a drop scheduled for tomorrow. The eighth one. I told him that unless he heard otherwise from me he should go through with it.”

“Good,” Ben nods. It will give them a chance to catch whoever is doing this when they go to pick up the money. 

“I think there’s a pretty severe lack-of-information problem here, and he won’t say much.”

Ben shakes his head. “What is wrong with these fuckers? They never learn.”

Finn shrugs. “I told him not to lie. That eventually you always figure it all out and lying just slows things down.”

“Did you give him some credentials?”

“Of course,” Finn rolls his eyes.

“Was he impressed?” Ben asks, knowing Finn was annoyed but doesn’t care. 

“Yeah.”

“Really impressed?”

“The guy was fucking flabbergasted, Ben. What do want me to say? I told him about you and he hired you. I think he was _really_ impressed.”

Ben chuckles and veers off the highway. “This Plutt bastard is going to be a pain in the ass. See if you can find out which bank he’s got a deposit box at.”

“Will do.”

“We’ve got one shot to break through this tomorrow afternoon. I’ll plan to get to the drop site before Plutt does and stay after he’s left. Whoever this guy is, I should be able to snag him by tomorrow.”

“Sounds smooth enough to me,” Finn says, closing the files and putting them back in the briefcases. 

“Seems easy enough.”

* * *

Ben laid down on the bed, ignoring all the articles he’s read about hotel sanitation’s questionable guidelines because he was already overwhelmed enough by the fact that he wasn’t home.

The flight was annoying. He tried to distract himself by going over the papers that Finn arranged in the files but the man in the row behind him was snoring so he wore his headphones. He figured wearing headphones would mean he wasn’t interested in talking but the flight attendant kept asking if he wanted anything but he just waved her off and tried to stay focused. The flight wasn’t that long anyway. 

The rental car was too small and his head grazed the ceiling while he drove. When he hit bumps, he had to duck so he didn’t injure himself. 

So, he was already annoyed plenty by the time they got to the hotel, to the point where he just didn’t want to think about the burden of traveling anymore. He just wanted to think about this case. The sooner he figured it out, the sooner all of this was over. So he hardly said anything to Finn before locking himself in his room and trying to just catch his breath. 

Finn didn't think twice about any of this stuff. This was part of his job, so he just went to his room while he perused the room service menu while Ben already knew he would just raid the mini-fridge.

It’s been a while since he’s had to leave his penthouse for an investigation. Aside from Finn, he didn’t talk to many people. Speaking with the people that worked at the airport and the rental place frustrated him. Especially when the fake ID he was using for this trip seemed to catch people off guard. 

_Kylo Ren._

He wonders if he should use one of his other IDs during the investigation but he’s already started with this one and he preferred to keep everything consistent. 

Sighing to himself, he thinks about Plutt.

Tomorrow he would shadow him at the fitness club where he worked out in the mornings and observe him. The money drop wasn’t until later in the afternoon so he will be keeping to his usual schedule to act natural.

Plutt has never met him and doesn’t know what he looks like so it’s a perfect opportunity to see how he behaves naturally, not just throughout his day but also at the ransom drop. 

Regardless, Ben just hopes he figures something out so, at the very least, it can waft back to the First Order and make them realize the bunch of hacks that they are. 

_Fucking assholes…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this is still the early stages I feel like it isn’t too interesting yet. But next chapter should be more exciting since we finally meet Rey which I assume isn’t a spoiler because you’re here for Reylo.


End file.
